


Scream It to the Sky

by agent_florida



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Backstory, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-09
Updated: 2011-04-09
Packaged: 2017-11-23 19:45:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/625865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agent_florida/pseuds/agent_florida
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by Footloose. Leonard shows Tex how he blows off steam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scream It to the Sky

_“I hate him!”_  
  
The long curdled yell was completely subsumed by the scream of a Pelican’s engines as it geared up for flight. Soon its shadow overtook the two who were standing just on the other side of the fence. One, a boy, was panting and red-faced, black hair falling in his eyes. The other, a girl with blonde roots and cherry-red tips, was waiting her turn. When another vehicle zoomed by overhead, she called out to it,  _“Go to hell!”_  
  
 _“I’ll kill you!”_  
  
 _“Have to leave!”_  
  
Eventually their words just turned into garbled shouts of pure rage. They only stopped once they were both too hoarse, voices stuck in an awkward whispering register. “D’you feel any better?”  
  
He’d showed her this spot because she was new in town. New in town – and full of hatred. Her name was Ariel or Allison or something else that Leonard didn’t quite remember. Didn’t matter much. Everyone knew who you were talking about when you mentioned Tex. She was from Austin, of “keep Austin weird” fame, and she stuck out here like a sore thumb. “Don’t know,” she gasped out. She adjusted the black bandana holding her hair back. “Still hate him.”  
  
“Dads suck,” Leonard agreed. Well, in Tex’s case it was her new stepdad, but the point still stood.  
  
“Hate this place,” she continued, punching the ground at her side. She was adorable when she was angry – or at least Leonard thought so. Good thing she had a lot to be angry about. Her dad had walked out on her, and her stepdad wasn’t much better. Worse, she always seemed to be stirring up trouble. It seemed to come naturally to her. On her first day in town, she’d given the resident high-school dropout-delinquent a shiner that had lasted three weeks.  
  
“You’ll get out of here soon enough,” Leonard reassured her. It was the beginning of their senior year – they only had to wait out ten more months.  
  
“Hate you too,” she grumbled. Leonard knew she didn’t mean it, but it still stung a little. “Can’t wait until I can go to basic.”  
  
“What, like the military?” Leonard was cut off by the roar of another Pelican. That little thing was transporting a squad of soldiers from one Air Force base to another.  
  
“No, like culinary school,” she said sarcastically. She got out a cigarette, fumbled with her lighter; Leonard lit it for her instead, not expecting the thank-you he knew he’d never receive. “Yes, the military.”  
  
“Cool.” Leonard hadn’t even made any plans for post-graduation, but that sounded doable enough. “Me too.”  
  
Tex just stared at him with her nearly-black eyes. “No way,” she called his bluff. “You’re too much of a dweeb. Have you ever even fired a gun before?”  
  
“I have so!” He’d been on hunting trips before. It was practically the only thing to do around here.  
  
Tex let out a short huff of laughter, her smoke washing over Leonard’s face. “Ever actually hit what you were aiming at?”  
  
“Shut up.” He fell back on the grass, arms behind his head, staring up at the clouds. “You any better?”  
  
“My dad used to take me shooting,” she said softly. “I can make a perfect pistol target from forty yards.”  
  
“You miss him.”  
  
“Like hell. Dads suck.”  
  
They lay there by the fence for a while, until the sun went down and it went dark and they were breaking curfew. The Pelicans came fewer and fewer. Just before midnight, the last one of the day took off, and Leonard screamed to it, something sappy with the word ‘love’ in it.  
  
“What’d you say?” Tex asked him, brushing dirt off her jeans once she stood.  
  
Leonard took the hand she lent him, pulling himself off the ground. “Nothin’.”  
  
She let it go. “Walk me home?” And he did.


End file.
